What media bias?

Instapundit reports that the WashPost "begrudgingly" reported their own poll showed Trump ahead of Hillary.  This for a guy with the highest negatives among any candidate in Presidential history.  I tend to think that these negatives have nowhere to go but down, so what does that mean for the general election?

Yawn: another hate crime hoax

Chicago Tribune: "Lessons gleaned from a web of lies in Iowa."  Somebody started a drunk fight and tried to cover up his resulting ass-kicking in the worst way possible.

Today I learned: debt edition

Today I learned that the German word "schuld" means both "debt" and "guilt."

Thank heaven we live in a guilt-free America.  Instapundit: "Here we go again? Credit-Card Debt Nears $1 Trillion as Banks Push Plastic."

Egypt Air 804 found

Fox News: "Debris from EgyptAir plane crash found in Mediterranean, Egyptian military says."

Since reports of an explosion in midair are not reliable and the pilots did not answer a security check while the plane was flying, a struggle in the cockpit now seems to be a developing theory.

Flashback - The Atlantic magazine with this November 2001 story: "The Crash of EgyptAir 990."

No love for DWS

Politico: "Sanders camp slams Debbie Wasserman Schultz for 'throwing shade'."  Specifically, they've accused Debbie Downer of putting her thumb on the scale for Hillary.  IIRC, Debbie was against allowing Bernie Sanders to have a prime-time speech during the Democratic Convention.

A Brit for free speech

Hot Air: "JK Rowling: Silencing speech that offends you is standing with tyrants."

I think we all knew this

Or did we?  Because sometimes I think the mainstream media gets tired of reporting: "There go those Clintons again!"  Ace: "Wall Street Analyst: Clinton Charities' Finances Are So Convoluted and Dodgy It Rises to the Level of Fraud."

Just a reminder here: Bill's typical haul for a speech skyrocketed after Hillary became Secretary of State.

After his wife became Secretary of State, former President Bill Clinton began to collect speaking fees that often doubled or tripled what he had been charging earlier in his post White House years, bringing in millions of dollars from groups that included several with interests pending before the State Department, an ABC News review of financial disclosure records shows.

Pure coincidence, I'm sure.

Tireless cheerleader for Obamacare now reports

New York Times: "Sorry, We Don’t Take Obamacare - The growing pains of the health care act are frustrating patients."

Amy Moses and her circle of self-employed small-business owners were supporters of President Obama and the Affordable Care Act. They bought policies on the newly created New York State exchange. But when they called doctors and hospitals in Manhattan to schedule appointments, they were dismayed to be turned away again and again with a common refrain: “We don’t take Obamacare,” the umbrella epithet for the hundreds of plans offered through the president’s signature health legislation.

Supporters of Obamacare are always extolling about how the law has cut the number of uninsured.  The problem is that the insurance is useless if you can't find a doctor:

But when she tried to visit her longtime doctor using the new plan, she found she could not.

I seem to remember certain people noting that when reimbursement rates drop to be in line with Medicare, a lot of doctors are not going to accept such low payments:

Some of the problems may have been predictable.

If only there were some kind of unbiased organization designed to study and report these issues.

The last in line

USA Today: "This woman is the only person left born in the 1800s."  Emma Morano from Italy says the secret is to eat a raw egg everyday.

Meanwhile in Florida

Hot Air: "Florida insurers seeking double-digit rate hikes under Obamacare."

Every year the insurance companies ask for significant rate hikes and every year the Obama Administration says: "Oh, you don't need that much".  Then UnitedHealthcare pulled out, showing they weren't bluffing.

Surrounded by sycophants

Former CIA director and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta: "Yeah, Barry was never serious about stopping Iran from getting nukes."

Because: historical history-making.  So suck-up Ben Rhodes was in charge of foreign policy and suck-up Valerie Jarrett is in charge of domestic policy.  We're in the best of hands.

Related - Observer: "As Boyish Ben Rhodes Drops Truth Bombs, Obama’s Media Mask Crumbles - The president's Mini-Me reveals salesmanship—not always consistent with facts—matters above everything else."  Hat tip: Instapundit.

It's an investigation

Daily Caller: "FBI Director Disputes Hillary’s Claim That Email Probe Is Just A ‘Security Inquiry’."

Never mind that thing I said the other day

You'd think I'd learn by now to stop betting against Trump.  The other day I wrote: "There is zero chance that Trump can win the general election."  Now Reuters is reporting "Trump surges in support, almost even with Clinton in national U.S. poll."  This is in line with a Quinnipiac and PPP poll earlier this week.

Look, I don't like the guy.  But there are a lot of disaffected voters who don't care: he's their guy.  Back in February, I took note of a guy on NPR who said that if he can't vote for Bernie Sanders, he was going to vote for Trump.  Then on Tuesday, the Hill had this headline: "Nearly half of W.Va. Sanders backers would vote Trump."

This is not a conventional election year, not by a long shot.

"You should acquire a taste for cat food"

Zero Hedge has two separate "WTF Chart" posts today.  The first indicates that Americans have almost no retirement savings and are going to be relying heavily on Henry Winkler to get them a reverse mortgage: "Dead retirees walking."

How can people expect survive for decades on virtually no savings? This chart reveals that a huge percentage of American households will face miserable retirement years and/or having to work until the day they die.

Well, there's always Social Security.  Which is going broke:

The promises made when there were 7 workers for every retiree cannot be kept when there are only 2 workers for every retiree. As automation commoditizes labor, goods and services, the ratio of full-time workers to retirees will continue to slip: it's already under two-to-one, as there are 123 million full-time jobs and 65.48 million Social Security beneficiaries.

Nobody in Washington will reform these programs now.

Hurt feelings in the MSM

Awww....the New York Times story about how Ben Rhodes totally played the media in pursuit of Obama's Iran deal has ruffled some feathers.  Weekly Standard: "The Ben Rhodes Blow-Up."

And now, the echo chamber is mad—but not at Ben Rhodes for what he said. They're mad at Samuels for getting the story they didn't—or didn't even see was there, and they're mad at him for what he reported. The Washington Post has published three different pieces on Samuels, none favorable, including one by the editor of the book section. The Post is mad of course because the Samuels piece publicly shamed the paper—after all, its main brief is to cover the local industry—the workings of the government of the United States. And yet as the article makes plain, Post reporters and especially columnists got spun and conned about the Iran deal. But much worse than that is that the Post got scooped on the story explaining how gullible they are. Scooped by the New York Times, in their own backyard on the biggest foreign policy story of the past four years! That's embarrassing.

And Jeffrey Goldberg is hopping mad, too. The Atlantic just posted his long and seething rejoinder to Samuels, who wrote in his Rhodes piece that, "handpicked Beltway insiders like Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic and Laura Rozen of Al-Monitor helped retail the administration's narrative."

That's why Obama keeps coming back to Steve Kroft for softball interviews: the White House knows which "Democrats with bylines" (as Instapundit calls it) will get their message out with no fuss.

Western Massachusetts update

MassLive: "Woman calls Amherst police, fakes sickness to get out of bad date."

Sure, why not?

ABC News: "Emails From Hillary Clinton’s IT Director at State Department Appear to Be Missing."

This is the guy the Justice Department gave immunity in exchange for testimony that - oopsie! - they can't find.

I agree with 90% of this article

Here's Max Boot writing in the LA Times: "The Republican Party is dead."

There has never been a major party nominee in U.S. history as unqualified for the presidency. The risk of Trump winning, however remote, represents the biggest national security threat that the United States faces today.

What pains me is that this was a winnable election against an extremely flawed Democratic candidate: a congenital liar with historic unfavorability numbers.  There is zero chance that Trump can win the general election.  He's been a Republican all of ten minutes, a conservative of no standing, and his undisciplined style will drag down the whole party.  I'm in the camp of Boot and other conservatives who would rather see him go down to a Mondale-style beatdown to save the party.

But the Republican party is not dead - let's not get crazy now.

Extra - Here's one of my favorite authors, P. J. O'Rourke:

"I am endorsing Hillary, and all her lies and all her empty promises," O'Rourke continued. "It's the second-worst thing that can happen to this country, but she's way behind in second place. She's wrong about absolutely everything, but she's wrong within normal parameters."

Yup.

Big Dig accounting in Boston

You'd think that Beantown would learn.  The Central Artery project (aka the "Big Dig") was originally supposed to cost $2.8 billion but ended up costing nearly $15 billion.

Today's Boston Globe reports on the MBTA Green Line extension.  Big surprise: sloppy planning and a rush to secure federal funds led to unexpected cost over-runs:

Decades after the project to extend the light rail line into Medford and Somerville was first proposed, Governor Deval Patrick stood alongside Congressman Michael Capuano, US Senator Elizabeth Warren, and other officials to celebrate winning a federal grant that would bring the state nearly $1 billion.

But just seven months later, the project was stopped in its tracks, dogged by newer estimates that showed the project could cost $1 billion more than projected. And on Monday, state transportation officials will receive a report on how to scale back the project dramatically. They will ultimately have to decide whether to proceed with a stripped down plan — or to pull the plug altogether.

It's conservative dogma that a public program paid with taxpayer money never dies, so I don't expect they'll kill this project.  And despite the efforts to proceed with a scaled-down project, I further expect - surprise! - taxpayers across the Bay State will be forced to pay for this latest boondoggle.

Hillary: I'm recklessly stupid but don't have malicious intent

Too bad that this has no distinction in the eyes of the law, no matter how Clinton and the media try to spin it.  Hot Air: "“Malicious intent” is not required to break the law in Hillary Clinton’s case."

At one point in this email saga, Hillary whined that there had to be markings since she's too dim to figure out what might be classified.  There do not have to be markings - this is all a red herring.

Refresher - "@HillaryClinton Meet 18 U.S.C § 793".  "The fact that Secretary Clinton’s camp claims the particular emails in question were not marked “classified” or “top secret” at the time (even though the IG states that the emails “were classified when they were sent and are classified now”) is irrelevant.  “Gross negligence” is the standard."

Unravelling

Vodkapundit: "ObamaCare Insurers Considering Dumping Bronze Plans."  As Stephen Green notes, the bronze plans are where the young and healthy support the rest of the people on Obamacare.  Cutting them out while raising the cost of the silver plans = recipe for a death spiral.

Golly, I didn't break the law "willingly"

Twitchy: "‘#AboveTheLaw’: Report on progress of Hillary investigation contains ‘operative words’."

"This is a charity fraud."

The Clinton Foundation slush fund, that is.  Washington Free Beacon: "Wall Street Whistleblower Turns His Scrutiny on the Clinton Foundation."

You will be made to care

Inside Higher Ed: "From Suppressing to Compelling - The diversity requirements at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst demonstrate a troubling shift from proscription of speech to prescription of political attitudes."

Western Massachusetts Snowflake alert

This story is unintentionally hilarious.  MassLive: "Hampshire College, which couldn't get Beyoncé, President Obama or Bernie Sanders, replaces commencement speaker to address student gripes."

They invited every politically-correct person under the sun and settled on Dr. Emily Wong who worked on infectious diseases in Africa.  But that just wasn't good enough for the kids.  So they dis-invited the doctor and invited Reina Gossett, a filmmaker who made a movie about the Stonewall riots.

Graduation is Saturday, May 14th.  The competition among Gender Studies majors at Applebees will be intense on Sunday.

All for Clinton

Here's Politico: "Clinton fundraising leaves little for state parties - The Democratic front-runner says she's raising big checks to help state committees, but they've gotten to keep only 1 percent of the $60 million raised."

So the "Hillary Victory Fund" operates under the same guidelines as the Clinton Foundation: "Government Watchdog Calls The Clinton Foundation "A Slush Fund"."

What? No!

Hot Air: "CNN president: You know, we may have been “a little too liberal” in the past."  And now ratings are rising.  Funny that.

How's that sauce for the gander taste?

The Hill: "Sanders supporters hound FCC with complaints about media bias."

Don't worry, liberals: you'll always have Fox News to call racist.

Does it matter who's President?

Charles Lane says no, since the federal government is going to be on autopilot: "Entitlements reform, RIP."

Seventy-five percent of planned federal spending between now and the end of the next two presidential terms is mandatory: Social Security, Medicare and other entitlement programs, plus interest on the national debt, according to Congressional Budget Office forecasts. That money is going out the door no matter who’s president.

Neither Trump or Clinton are proposing anything to stop the bleeding from these programs and super-panderer Clinton is talking about expanding them.  Let's double that national debt again.

We'll always have Canada

NY Post: "Ted Cruz is crumbling before our very eyes."  He coulda been a contender.

White hat/black hat

I just finished Season 2 of "Silicon Valley" and it reminded me of this clever puzzle:

The Bizarro world of Obamacare

The Chosen One, perfect in every way, said this recently:

WALLACE:  Best day in the White House?

OBAMA: The day that we passed health care reform.

Here's Marc Thiessen in the WashPost laying bare how Obamacare has done exactly opposite of what was promised: "Obamacare disaster will be Obama’s enduring domestic legacy."

The president promised Obamacare would provide “more choice, more competition, lower costs.” Instead, Americans have less choice, less competition and higher costs.
. . . . .
The president promised “if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.” But commercial insurers who stay in Obamacare are responding to massive losses by narrowing provider networks, with fewer doctors and hospitals to choose from. And those that quit are being replaced by Medicaid HMOs with even less doctor choice.
The president promised Obamacare would “lower premiums by up to $2,500 for a typical family per year.” But insurers are raising premiums instead to cover the massive losses, and even Marilyn Tavenner — the former Obama administration official who ran Obamacare — has predicted premiums will rise even further next year.

Soon, very soon, we'll stop calling it Obamacare.

Sounds like they're building a case against him

MassLive: "Leominster police are looking for man who tried to steal more than $800 worth of Legos."

Using the State department as an ATM

Legal Insurrection: "Hillary's paid speech problem just got worse"  From the AP report:

The AP’s review of federal records, regulatory filings and correspondence showed that almost all the 82 corporations, trade associations and other groups that paid for or sponsored Clinton’s speeches have actively sought to sway the government — lobbying, bidding for contracts, commenting on federal policy and in some cases contacting State Department officials or Clinton herself during her tenure as secretary of state.

Which is why those speeches will never be released due to the moral and legal impact.  There will be a shifting and evolving series of new excuses to keep them out of the public eye.  Of course, that doesn't mean the FBI hasn't been looking into public corruption charges.

Let it go belly-up

Federalist: "How We’ll Fix Social Security By Not Fixing It - Doing nothing about Social Security is the overwhelmingly popular position. And it may well constitute its own kind of reform."

One quibble: this author believes that once Americans see their promised benefits cut by 21%, it will spur them to take control of their own retirement by maxing out 401(k)s or other savings plans.  I'm not so sure, given that almost half of America can't muster up $400 to pay for a sudden expense.

The science is settled!

Daily Caller: "7 Enviro Predictions From Earth Day 1970 That Were Just Dead Wrong."  There's going to be a lot of these moving forward:

Damn, these cops are racist

Hot Air: "ICYMI: Rahm’s police task force just accused the Chicago Police Department of institutional racism."

Also ICYMI, Heather MacDonald wonders if the cities want police protection or not in "Back to Bedlam."

Bad day for the hate hoaxsters

Hot Air: "Kean University racism protester to face jail time for tweeting fake death threats."

and this: "Whole Foods: We’re suing the gay activist who claimed we sold him a cake with a slur written on it — and we have video."

This latter one is so obviously a hoax: who picks up a cake with a clear plastic cover and never once looks down?  The box, sticker and icing color are all wrong, also.  Nice try, chump.

Nobody told me that labor costs money

MassLive: "Haymarket Cafe in Northampton eliminates table service six months after ending tipping, increasing wages."

In my younger (childless) days, I used to frequent the Haymarket Cafe where one book section was "Marxism" and "Labor Struggles."  So it didn't surprise me a bit when the owner of the cafe raised everybody's pay to $14/hour rising to $16 in 2017, but eliminated tipping.  Guess what happened?

Simpson made the shift in an effort to address inequities between waitstaff and back-of-the-house workers, He said that overall, the cafe is doing well but the novel system has put pressure on labor costs.

Do tell.  So they cut table waiting leaving only counter service and the mostly part-time staff will see a couple hours cut from their schedules.

Virtually nobody trusts the mainstream media

Associated Press: "Poll: Vast majority of Americans don't trust the news media."

Just 6 percent of people say they have a lot of confidence in the media, putting the news industry about equal to Congress and well below the public's view of other institutions. In this presidential campaign year, Democrats were more likely to trust the news media than Republicans or independents.

I'll bet they do, given they're a division of the Democratic party.  If I could offer up just one recent example: the Democrats recently had their ridiculous Equal Pay Day in their "war on women" narrative and major networks followed their marching orders.  Virtually nobody outside of the conservative blogs reported that Hillary pays her female staff much less than male staffers.

Looking back at the Obamacare debate: is there a single warning by those opposed to this law that has not come true?  (No, you can't keep your insurance.  No, your premiums will not go down by $2500.  The way the mandates are set up will send the insurance companies into a death spiral.)  But the narrative back then was "Republicans want you sick."  Media bias is real and it's about time that Americans noticed; if only the media could be so introspective.

Charity begins at the home

USA Today: "In a statement, Hillary Clinton noted the family had given $15 million to charity since 2007. The tax returns show $14.8 million of that went to the Clinton Family Foundation."

And what a charity!

The Clinton Foundation’s finances are so messy that the nation’s most influential charity watchdog put it on its “watch list” of problematic nonprofits last month.

The Clinton family’s mega-charity took in more than $140 million in grants and pledges in 2013 but spent just $9 million on direct aid.

The group spent the bulk of its windfall on administration, travel, and salaries and bonuses, with the fattest payouts going to family friends.

That's not a charity.  It's a slush fund for the Clintons.

Count me out

"Government is simply the name we give to the things we choose to do together." - Barney Frank

"I'm not paying for that." - Bernie Sanders' supporters

Premium rush

The Hill: "Insurers warn losses from ObamaCare are unsustainable."

You'll never see those transcripts, America

Huffington Post: "Release of Clinton’s Wall Street Speeches Could End Her Candidacy for President."

Release of the transcripts would therefore, it appears, have three immediate — and possibly fatal — consequences for Clinton’s presidential campaign:

1.) It would reveal that Clinton lied about the content of the speeches at a time when she suspected she would never have to release them, nor that their content would ever be known to voters.
2.) It would reveal that the massive campaign and super-PAC contributions Clinton has received from Wall Street did indeed, as Sanders has alleged, influence her ability to get tough on Wall Street malfeasance either in Congress or behind closed doors.
3.) It would reveal that Clinton’s policy positions on — for instance — breaking up “too-big-to-fail” banks are almost certainly insincere, as they have been trotted out merely for the purposes of a presidential campaign.

Can she carry her excuses through to the general election?  What if the GOP nominee says: here's all my speeches - then what?

Hillary hates women

NY Post: "Why Hillary never makes Equal Pay Day pay off"

Turns out the Clinton Foundation has a “Mad Men” era wage gap of its own: Male executives made 38 percent more than female executives. Yep, apparently, the Clinton family foundation exemplifies the things Democrats say they hate: the Foundation drastically short-changes the female help.
...
This isn’t the first time Hillary Clinton has been exposed as an equal-pay hypocrite. In August, the Washington Free Beacon revealed that women on Clinton’s campaign staff make less than the men, and her Senate office staff also had a pay gap larger than the national average.

Live by the narrative, die by the narrative.

Extra - Patterico: "The annual nonsense on the pay gap and hypocrisy from the Clinton Foundation."

Umass students engage in epic demonstration of hypocrisy

MassLive: "More than 200 students occupy UMass' Whitmore Administration Building; dispersal order anticipated."

More than 230 University of Massachusetts students are occupying the halls on the third floor of the Whitmore Administration Building on the third day of their occupation as they demand the university commit to divest from all fossil fuels.

The picture attached to this story shows an unending line of white wannabe hippies, each of them Facebooking their struggle on Macbooks.  In other words, they're tapping away on their devices formed from petrochemical plastics, in a warm university hallway, while charging their Iphones on electricity provided by burning coal.

"We shall overcome" this school's mediocre Wi-Fi coverage!

Yeah, that's a pretty low bar this year

The Hill: "Poll: Sanders is most liked candidate."

Stuff you find on the internet

National Review: "Harry Reid: No Senate Duty to Give Nominees a Vote"

"The duties of the Senate are set forth in the U.S. Constitution. Nowhere in that document does it say that the Senate has a duty to give Presidential appointees [sic; he means "nominees"] a vote. It says appointments shall be made with the advice and consent of the Senate. That is very different than saying every nominee receives a vote."

And now this via PJ Media: "Lyin’ Biden: We Found a THIRD Time He Fought Passionately for ‘Biden Rule’"

Shut up in the name of the law

Glenn Reynolds writing in USA Today: "Dear attorneys general, conspiring against free speech is a crime."  "Liberal law enforcers shouldn't break the law to shut up climate change dissenters."

The Left hates free speech, continued

Coyote Blog: "Speech Restriction Stories I Have Read in Just the Last 24 Hours."  H/T Maggie's Farm.

The JV team

Reuters Investigates: "How Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen has made al Qaeda stronger – and richer."  "One unintended consequence of the war in Yemen: Al Qaeda now runs its own mini-state, flush with funds from raiding the local central bank and levying taxes at the local port."

A most New England headline

MassLive: "100 gallons of Vermont maple syrup go missing."

This won't end well

Daily Caller: "More Than 40 Percent Of Americans Aren’t Paying Their Student Loans."  "More than 40 percent of Americans with student loans aren’t currently making payments on them, raising the specter of massive loan defaults in Department of Education’s gargantuan $1.2 trillion student loan portfolio."

The government stepped in to "help" the "problem" of private banks funding education, kids loaded up on low-interest loans to go to for-profit schools, then they walked away sticking the taxpayers with the bill.

Now living longer is "unfair"

Although Social Security is considered a universal entitlement, there is a fair amount of progressivity built into the system.  As the CBO reports, Americans in the bottom fifth of the earning distribution will receive benefits in ratio to taxes paid three times higher than the top fifth.

So now we have this.  CBS News: "As the poor die earlier, Social Security isn't paying off."  Yes, because richer recipients live longer and collect benefits for a longer period of time, that's "unfair."  Sure.

If the problem is that Americans are not living long enough to collect their Social Security benefits, isn't this exactly the argument made by certain libertarian types for personal accounts?  I think it is!  Let Americans take control of their own finances, earn better returns, and maintain a balance that can be passed on to family after death.

But no: the government hates giving any kind of control to the masses.  We'll hold on to your money and maybe - maybe - we'll give it back.  Or not.

Bender Bending Rodriguez would be pleased

Governor Jerry Brown has signed the "Accelerated Robot Development Program."  Hit and Run: "Gov. Brown Admits $15 Minimum Wage Does Not Make Economic Sense, Approves It Anyway."

Thank you for noticing!

Yes, I am using an Ad Blocker on my browser.
No, I won't disable it.
You can keep your stupid content...I didn't want to read it anyway.

Aw, snap. We forgot to add basic security to our server.

Pretty damning report via the Volokh Conspiracy: "Was an Asian government reading Hillary Clinton’s emails in February 2009?"

I continue to be fascinated by the very early chapters of the Hillary Clinton homebrew email saga. For one simple reason:  the clintonemail.com server apparently didn’t have the digital certificate needed to encrypt communications until late March 2009 — more than two months after the server was up and running, and after Secretary Clinton’s swearing-in on January 22.
....
There now seems to be a very real probability that Hillary Clinton rushed to install an encryption certificate in March 2009 because the U.S. intelligence community caught another country reading Clinton’s unencrypted messages during her February 16-21, 2009, trip to China, Indonesia, Japan, and S. Korea.

If you've been following this scandal as I have, you'll remember that Hillary tried to "disappear" the first two months of her email server operation and now we can guess why: there is likely evidence of foreign hacking in the open season before encryption was installed.

Related - Hot Air: "Former DOJ Lawyer: Hillary Clinton should be prosecuted over email handling."

Things that can't go on, don't

Zero Hedge: "Stanley Druckenmiller: "This Is The Most Unsustainable Situation I Have Seen In My Career"."

The disaster that Druckenmiller sees coming for the United States is all about changing demographics and entitlement spending. They don’t add up to a sustainable situation.

In 1940, entitlement payments, which include everything from disability payments to Social Security to Medicare, amounted to just over 20% of annual government spending in the United States.

Today, entitlement spending has swelled to nearly 70% of the annual federal budget.

Emphasis in original.  It's remarkable that in this political season where candidates are putatively talking about the future, nobody is talking about the state of entitlement spending except to expand it (looking at you, Bernie.)  Republicans have finally learned that pointing out the parlous state of the Medicare and Social Security Trust Funds is a ticket to Loserville.  Better to let them collapse under their own insolvency and then pick up the pieces later.

A classy affair for the class war

MassLive: "Bernie Sanders' campaign blasts $353k-per couple Hillary Clinton fundraiser with George Clooney."

It's funny how Bernie Sanders was sick of hearing about Hillary's emails but he goes into full attack mode when she gathers up cash from oil companies or Hollywood phonies. I guess that's his wheelhouse.

Yes, do go on

Matthew Continetti: "How to Dump Trump - Deny him the delegates and call his third-party bluff."  Please save us Wisconsin.

Hillary doesn't take money from fossil fuel companies

That's what the Clinton Foundation is for:

Hillary Clinton is calling for a federal investigation of ExxonMobil’s climate change activities just months after the company neglected to renew its sponsorship of the Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting.

Sheer coincidence!  Also, Hillary is tired of all the lies (particularly the truthful ones).

Above the law

Commentary: "What are 147 FBI agents doing?"  "Taken out of a political context, I don’t think there’s much doubt that anyone who did something as reckless and blatantly illegal as Clinton would have been charged in the case."

As foreseen

Hot Air: "Who’s up for another round of big ObamaCare rate hikes?"  "Those people are seeing the reward of compliance as far less than the cost of non-compliance and are staying out of the system altogether."

Golly, I seem to remember somebody predicting exactly this.  Oh, well, oopsie!

This feels staged

Ace: "Video of Black Female College Student Harassing (And Grabbing) White Male Student Over His Wearing of Dreadlocks Goes Viral; College Allegedly Investigating the Incident."

My radar starting pinging like crazy upon seeing this video.  The staging is perfect with the filmer slightly above the "incident" and the audio is super-clear.  Then the conversation between the filmer and the assaulting girl is too quick (i.e. rehearsed) to be spontaneous before she blocks the lens - drama!  This feels like a fake-but-accurate lesson in "consciousness raising."

This omelette requires a LOT of eggs

Fox News: "ObamaCare may force employers to pull the plug on millions of health plans, CBO report finds."

That'll teach 'em

Steyn Online: "Happy Easter from the Religion of Peace."  A Muslim store clerk in Glasgow wished his Christian customers a happy Easter; four hours later he was dead.

On today's "All Things Considered"

I heard two back-to-back stories on NPR driving home this evening: one I liked and one I really didn't like.

The first was "Amid ride-booking rivalries, many Cairo women turn to Uber for safe passage."  "In Cairo, taxi drivers are fighting the encroachment of ride-booking services like Uber. But many Egyptians, especially women, say they prefer Uber since they feel safer with the company's drivers."

The women describe the Cairo taxi drivers as lecherous, disrespectful, and downright cheats.  The Uber drivers, on the other hand, are trained on sexual harassment, honest, and deferential because they want a good rating.  Naturally, the taxi drivers want Uber outlawed in Egypt.

The second story was titled: "To Reduce Gun Violence, Potential Offenders Offered Support And Cash."  However, Zero Hedge has the more accurate title: "America Hits Rock Bottom: Cities Are Paying Criminals $1000 Per Month "Not To Kill"."  Basically, it's the story of Richmond, California (where else?) where a group of thugs are kept in weed money as long as they don't kill anyone.

Nice work if you can get it.

A Viking Pundit correction

Sometimes in the course of heated political discourse, we make mistakes that are often exaggeration or, dare I say, hyperbole.  But I am here to correct this misstatement.  The other day I said that there were 150 FBI agents working on Hillary's illegal email server investigation.

The truth can be told: "147 FBI agents involved in Clinton email probe."  I regret the error.

Winding down the Windy City

Hit and Run: "Residents Abandoning Chicago: Is It Following in Detroit’s Footsteps? - Illinois’ sources of revenues are leaving as government employees keep demanding more, more, more."

I like the guy who realizes they're never going to fix the pension problems in Chicago and Illinois; he's off to Florida.  Hat tip: Maggie's Farm.

Extra - American Interest "Illinois Supremes scuttle pension reform."  "The Supremes have spoken: The Illinois state constitution is a suicide pact."

Hillary belongs in jail

Sometimes I think I'm the only person in America who still thinks Hillary is going to be indicted.  There is so much cynicism towards this Justice Department but can they ignore the evidence?  Writing in the WashPost, Ed Rogers reminds us the current state of Hillary's illegality: "Deceit and power work in Hillary's favor".

In politics, it is said that you can fool some of the people all of the time and you can fool all of the people some of the time. In other words, liars have pretty good odds. The smoking guns keep piling up at Hillary Clinton’s feet, but nothing seems to trip her. Yesterday, Judicial Watch released a batch of documents, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, that it says reveals blatant coordination between then-Secretary of State Clinton and the Clinton Foundation. Stunningly, the internal State Department emails expose Clinton’s eagerness to “thank [Clinton Foundation] supporters for their commitments.” Of course, these “commitments” must mean money. It’s incredible.

And, Clinton’s State Department was apparently coordinating meetings for Bill Clinton with foreign heads of state. If any other employee at the State Department had arranged such meetings for their spouse and actively thanked contributors to their spouse’s foundation, they would likely go to jail. No lawyer would even let it go to trial, because the sentencing guidelines would guarantee years behind bars.

It’s only because Hillary’s last name is Clinton and because she is the Democratic front-runner for president that she isn’t already being prosecuted for something or another. For anyone else at the State Department, their conviction and sentencing would produce only a matter-of-fact, back-page reference in The Washington Post.

The double standard doesn’t end there. If any other State Department employee had decided to conduct all of his or her official business on a personal server located in his or her private home, that person would have already been prosecuted. Period. Full stop.

The FBI allegedly has 150 agents working on the email and corruption cases.  This sounds to me like an investigation going in full force, not something about to be swept under the rug.

She's a dim bulb

Boston Magazine: "Watch Elizabeth Warren Dodge Every Question in Awkward Interview."

Federal Appeals Court: Turn over a smidgen of evidence

Fox News: "Federal appeals court slams IRS in Tea Party case, demands documents."

In a blistering rebuke of the IRS, a Cincinnati-based federal appeals court has ordered the tax-collecting agency to quit stalling and produce the names of organizations it targeted based on their political leanings.

The unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit gave the IRS two weeks to turn over the documents sought as part of a class-action lawsuit brought by the NorCal Tea Party Patriots. 

Like every other scandal playbook, the plan is to delay to the point where it's "old news."

Peak snowflake

Daily Mail: "Emory University president says students are scared and 'in pain' after someone wrote 'Trump 2016' in chalk on campus."

Terror in Brussels

Fox News: "More explosive devices reportedly found as Belgian police stage nationwide raids."

This NPR interview with Georgetown professor Christine Fair (transcript not available yet) was eye-opening.  Apparently, Belgium is pretty lax with gun laws (by European standards) and immigration laws.  Native Belgians are getting pretty agitated by the changes in their country as a result.

The Trump death march

The Federalist: "The Next RNC ‘Autopsy’ Will Be A Real One - By backing Trump, the RNC embraces the worst kind of disaster."

An RNC insider, who requested anonymity, told NBC that altering convention rules to stop Trump would be a disaster. “Change the rules drastically you will have a problem. You want to have World War III and destroy the party?” It’s going to be a disaster, yes. The RNC can still choose which kind.

Trump cannot win.  He cannot win.  Once more with feeling: he will not be President.  The primary voters have lined up behind the only person with a higher disapproval rating than Hillary.  He talks to everybody like they're in fourth grade and insults anybody who disagrees with him.  He has no policy depth and no temperament for the office.  He must be stopped.

So, yes, gather the men in the smoky back-room and pull a Torricelli.   Between the chaos of a splintered Republican party and certain defeat, I chose the former.

In other news, the British Natural Environmental Research Council asked Brits to name their research boat and the runaway favorite is "Boaty McBoatface."  The Council will almost certainly override this poor choice because sometimes democracy is for suckers.

Extra - New Geography: "Farewell, Grand Old Party."

Corporate inversions

Washington Post: "Giving up its U.S. citizenship could save Pfizer $35 billion in taxes."

When Pfizer announced its plan last year to merge with Botox-maker Allergan and move its headquarters to Ireland the company said the deal would lower its tax rate to about 17 percent to 18 percent, saving it about $2 billion over three years.

But in a report published Thursday, Americans for Tax Fairness say the New York-based pharma giant will actually save much more by giving up its U.S. citizenship: $35 billion.

Is it any wonder that U.S.-based companies are seeing to flee the highest corporate tax rate in the world?  Now pay your "fair share" and give those kids a $15 minimum wage, too.

Broken windows everywhere

PJ Media: "The Ferguson Effect Continues to Fester."  "Emanuel’s lesson was not lost on ambitious politicians like de Blasio and elsewhere: Better for a city to endure higher crime than see a racially charged incident turned into a political liability."

Hush-hush, voices carry

Today's feel-good story.  MassLive: "Northampton troopers find 230 bags of heroin after suspect whispers 'I don't think they found all the stuff in the car'."

Unclear on the concept

Hot Air: "WaPo: Three Pinocchios for declaring Senate’s “constitutional duty” to vote on Garland."

You would think that Democrats would be at least embarrassed about their prior positions such as the "Biden Rule" but, like the NYT editorial page, principles depend on the political party.

Mega-Tuesday: Jump to the beat of the Party line

The clownishly biased NYT editorial page

John Steele Gordon on Commentary: "NYT to the unskilled: Drop dead"

If the New York Times editorial board ever wonders why their editorials have so little influence these days, they might consider this. An editorial designed to affect public policy should consist of four parts: 1) Here’s the problem, 2) Here’s the solution, 3) Here’s what the other side says, 4) Here’s why they’re wrong.  A New York Times editorial, however, consists of only three parts: 1) Here’s the problem, 2) Here’s the liberal doctrine on the problem, 3) Only greedy, stupid, evil (choose one or more) people and interests oppose it.

In this case, Gordon notes that coherent policy takes a backseat to bashing Republicans for the unpardonable sin of keeping the minimum wage where it is.  You see, it's all about feel-good intentions for the NYT and their liberal ilk; the actual results of a higher minimum wage are of ancillary importance.

Tiresome drivel.

Extra - From Hot Air: "Fight for $15 update: Seattle employment craters."

Attack in Ivory Coast

Gee, I wonder who might be responsible?  Fox News: "Gunmen storm Ivory coast resort."

Marcel Guy said he saw at least four gunmen with Kalashnikov rifles on the beach. He said one approached two children, and spoke in Arabic. One child knelt and prayed, the other child was shot dead.

At least 14 dead at this soon-to-be closed beach resort.

Hillary lies. That's what she does.

Reddit post: "Bernie opposing Auto Bailout, delaying Clean Power Plan, supporting Minutemen militia, Koch brothers endorsement, Reagan HIV/AIDS "activism" and today's Sanders healthcare support in the 90s are 6 things Hillary Clinton blatantly lied about in a single freaking week."

The "healthcare support" lie was hilariously refuted by the entire Internet.

The social compact, impacted

MassLive: "Catholic school in Mass. apologizes after 'You killed Jesus!' chant at game."

Let's repeat, this time with feeling: "Classification is based on content, not markings."

Fox News: "Source: Clinton IT specialist revealing server details to FBI, 'devastating witness'."

She then added her now standard explanation that nothing she sent or received was marked classified at the time. While technically correct, the distinction appears misleading. The January 2009 classified information non-disclosure agreement signed by Clinton says she understood that classified information could be marked and unmarked, as well as verbal communications.

Classification is based on content, not markings.

Without the markings defense - that only George Stephanopoulos has stressed - Hillary's rationale is that 1) she has no idea what might be considered classified without markings or 2) every single sensitive email found on her server, including 22 classified as "top secret", have been "over-classified" after the fact.

Corollary question: if Hillary received no classified information on her email server, just what was she doing all day as Secretary of State?  It's beyond belief.

The Obamacare sinkhole

Hot Air: "All of that tax money you loaned to the Obamacare co-ops? That’s probably gone."

When you don't have the money to allocate to a huge new entitlement, how do you get around that?  Easy-peasy: give out big loans that - oops! - will never be repaid.

What is the American character? This.

I know you kids are going to laugh at me: oh this has been around forever.  But I laughed because accuracy:

Oh yeah!  What that guy said.

This is the End

Awww...I like this show.  "Rob Lowe comedy series You, Me And The Apocalypse axed after just one series."  Rob Lowe as a foul-mouthed, chain-smoking priest was great.

Consider the source

Powerline: "NPR and Harvard say: Obamacare is a complete failure."

Condign punishment at Mizzou

Via Instapundit, here's Fox Sports: "Mizzou Protests Lead to Plunge In Freshmen, Massive Budget Deficits."

The fallout from the fake Mizzou protests continues to destablize the University of Missouri. Today the interim chancellor of the university emailed students that the university will enroll 1500 less students than projected and faces a budget shortfall of $32 million this year.

It looks like a lot of would-be students took a look at the spineless reaction of the Mizzou administration and said "no thanks."

Congrats to the Mizzou protesters on their fake protest. You -- in conjunction with your idiot football players who also went on strike -- have nearly killed a great university over a poop swastika, an alleged off campus racial slur that may not have even happened, and one racial slur on campus from a non-student in the past year.

Trigger warnings everywhere!  Wait until the next tuition hike.

Extra - The Corner: "Missouri Update: Crazy Campus Radicals Are Financially Crippling the University."

Dead man walking

It's stunning how fast Marco Rubio has dropped off a cliff.  He's almost certainly going to lose his home state of Florida and he's playing to tiny crowds.  Looking back, I think his debate performance where he repeated his "no illusions on Obama" mantra revealed him to be the lightweight voters suspected.

I kinda liked the guy at first but this stretch into the season has not inspired confidence.  So now what: Ted Cruz?  OMG.

Protect the Queen

Daily Caller: "Reddit Explodes After Washington Post Runs 16 Anti-Bernie Stories … In 16 Hours"

The Politics subreddit is heavily pro-Sanders.

The Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac two-step

Found via Coyote Blog: "Revisiting the financial crisis"

Michael Moore said that?

Hit and Run: "Michael Moore Points Out Futility of Flint Voting Democrat For Almost A Century."

Don't worry, about a half-hour after his original tweet, he made sure to blame a Republican.

Hillary wrote 104 emails declared classified

Powerline asks:

Query: is it a defense to say that she didn’t mark her own emails classified at the time?
Follow up: is it a defense that she apparently can’t recognize classified information?
Maybe someday someone will ask.

The Clinton defense of this latest revelation is: hey, who knows what's classified?  It's an inter-agency dispute between the State and Intelligence community, even though both Inspector Generals agree.

Extra - Hot Air: "As the Post takes great pains to point out, these 104 documents shoot holes in Clinton’s repeated claims that she never put any classified material on the server herself, but simply received it from others."

Revolting

NY Times: "Rank and File Republicans Tell Party Elites: We’re Sticking With Donald Trump."

I was listening to a story on NPR and they interviewed five Republican primary voters in Florida.  Three of them were enthusiastically voting for Trump, one was "meh" on Rubio, and the last didn't know but was generally depressed about the whole field.

What I said, I really meant the exact opposite

Commentary: "How Joe Biden broke the Court."  "But rather than admit that his words justify the GOP’s current stand, [Biden] has chosen to be a good administration soldier and tells us to ignore our lying eyes and instead to focus instead on the “broader meaning” of the speech which he somehow construes to mean the opposite of his intent at the time."

Rut roh

WashPost: "In Clinton email investigation, Justice Department grants immunity to former State Department staffer."

Get ready to laugh, America, at this bald-faced lie:

He [some Clinton flunky] also said that the campaign is “pleased” that Pagliano, who invoked the Fifth amendment before Congress, is now cooperating with prosecutors.

"Prosecutors?"  I think you mean "security reviewers."

Extra - Red State: "This is big news. People don’t get immunity deals from the federal government unless they have something big."

When DoJ gives someone immunity in an investigation involving my client I generally ask for a large increase in the fee deposit.

— Popehat (@Popehat) March 3, 2016

Liz Lemon speaks

Hit and Run: "Tina Fey Calls Out The Oscars for Political Correctness, Liberal 'Hollywood Bullshit' - 'Everyone is telling me what to do, and people are yelling at me about rape and corporate greed and climate change.'"

The conspiracy to keep you poor and stupid

This doesn't surprise me one bit.  From David Thompson:

A couple of years ago, the then minister of education admitted that the aim of the regime’s policies was “not to take the people out of poverty so they become middle class and then turn into escuálidos” (a derogatory term to denote opposition members). In other words, the government wanted grateful, dependent voters, not prosperous Venezuelans.

Oh, but that's crazy Venezuela, you say.  But then the same policies of union patronage and terrible schools has bankrupted and stunted Philadelphia - but at least it has created reliable Democrat voters.  Doug Ross: "Cataclysm: 30 Blocks of Democrat Governance."

It’s a perfect storm of governmental incompetence, union greed, political corruption, parental disinterest, societal disintegration, and poor life choices, creating the downfall of Philadelphia and other urban enclaves around the country.

You'll soon have company, Detroit.